Blocked kicks giving Leopards' Tavani fits

Lafayette to work on protection after two FG attempts fail.

September 18, 2006|By Don Bostrom Of The Morning Call

Lafayette's special teams -- in particular the field goal unit -- weren't too special in Saturday's 21-11 loss to Penn.

The game's complexion was altered considerably when senior place kicker Rick Ziska had a 22-yard field goal attempt blocked by Scott Williams in the third quarter and a 27-yarder deflected by Williams in the fourth quarter.

Coming away with no points after long, sustained drives is pretty deflating, and no one knows that better than Leopards coach Frank Tavani.

Getting the blocking schemes sorted out for the field goal unit is sure to be a point of emphasis this week in practice.

"That's probably the biggest aggravation I'm going to deal with watching the tapes again," Tavani said. "There's no excuse for not getting it done. It's just being lazy. It was a complete breakdown. We knew they did a good job of attacking from watching the game tapes and they had a drive up the middle."

Penn caved in the interior portion of the Lafayette line with storm surges that enabled Williams to get right on top of a helpless Ziska.

"I'm really disappointed in our field goal unit," Tavani said. "There's no excuse for that. They pushed us back, we didn't do our job."

Ziska has plenty of leg. His kick off to start the game went into the end zone for a touchback and he's had the longest field goals in the Patriot League in each of the last two seasons -- including a 51-yarder against Holy Cross in 2005 that is the longest in the modern era at Lafayette.

Ziska was 11-for-21 in 2005, including 6 of 12 from beyond 40 yards. This season he's only 2-for-5, but there are sure to be times when he's going to be needed to hit a big one and the line has to give him time.

The Leopards were fortunate a brain cramp didn't cost them on a successful two-point conversion.

A sophomore tight end forgot to go on the field, which left Lafayette lining up with just 10 men on what turned out to be a Brad Maurer pass to Duaeno Dorsey that cut the Penn lead to 14-11.

"That's just a lack of focus," Tavani said. "We score a touchdown and a guy is not paying attention to what's going on. You're not automatically going to kick an extra point every time."

Lafayette's kick coverage has been outstanding so far.

Opponents have netted just 15 return yards on David Yankovich's 11 punts.

Yankovich doesn't get much hang time and a considerable amount of his 40-yard average has come on rolls. It might not be long before teams see that and start bringing their return men closer.

Pat Davis was the voted the top long snapper in 1-AA last season and replacing him was an area of concern. So far, sophomore Leo Plenski has done a solid job.

All you need is glove: Quarterback Brad Maurer suffered a freak injury late in the Bucknell game when he gashed his left hand on one of the high metal helmet clips used to hold chin straps.

The cut, which runs from the tip of his left thumb into the palm of his hand, required eight stitches. He wore a glove to protect the wound on Saturday.

Maurer finished the game with a career-high 23 completions in 36 attempts for a career-high 286 yards. His previous best was 272 yards against Colgate.

Still hamstrung: Tavani decided to err on the side of caution when made a game-time decision to keep senior strong safety Torian Johnson and sophomore linebacker Andy Romans on the sidelines so their hamstring injuries could continue to heal.

"I've personally had experience with hamstring injuries when I was a running back at Lebanon Valley," Tavani said. "You just don't feel good about it. They haven't given you a full week of practice. You haven't been going hard so conditioning becomes an issue. Then you put them out there and they get a little bit of fatigue and the next thing you know you pop that thing and you are set back three or four more weeks. ..."

Speaking of fatigue, Penn coach Al Bagnoli admitted his club wasn't in the best game condition in their season opener.

Tavani saw they were getting gassed, but the Leopards never could take full advantage.

Field of dreams: There was nothing but rave reviews for all of the major renovations to Fisher Field at Fisher Stadium.

The in-fill synthetic surface enabled players to make sharp cuts and will only get better once it settles in and the field's new location led to better sight lines.

The video matrix board featuring a 19-foot by 35-foot widescreen video display that carried the live Lafayette Sports Network telecast and all the replays was spectacular with a crisp, clean image.